Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Froidmont's quarry, also known as "American cave", is an underground limestone farm located in Braye-en-Laonnois, Aisne. Operated in the Middle Ages, it provided stones for monuments such as Laon Cathedral. Its walls house sculptures and graffiti dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as traces left by German, French and American soldiers during the First World War, where it served as a shelter and strategic post.

During the war, the career was occupied successively by the Germans (from 1914), the French (from 1917) and the Americans (from 1918). The Germans built tunnels, anti-gas doors and a power grid, while the French and Americans left inscriptions and glyptographic works there. Fighting for his control was intense, especially in 1917 and 1918, because of his key position on the Chemin des Dames.

The site is remarkable for its glyptographic heritage, with nearly 1,000 traces (sculptures, graffiti, drawings) made by the soldiers. American works dominate in numbers (623), followed by Germans (145) and French (137). These testimonies, classified as Historical Monuments in 1998, provide a unique insight into the lives of combatants. The quarry, now privately owned, has been closed since 1991 but remains a symbol of the caves of the Chemin des Dames.

The exploitation of the quarry declined in the 20th century, mainly as a result of conversion to mushroom or overexploitation. Prior to its closure in 1856, it was a place of intensive extraction, as evidenced by the accounts of carriages engraved on the walls (including a payroll dating from 1700). The extraction techniques reached their peak under the Third Republic, when the Axon stone, known for its whiteness, was popular for large public buildings.

The hamlet of Coldmont, whose quarry is named after it, was destroyed during the war and never rebuilt. Attested in 1668, he organized around a medieval templar farm. The quarry, located 15 metres underground and extending over 40 hectares, was targeted by French fire in 1917, damaging some entrances. After the war, it was abandoned, leaving a partially stable but fragile underground network.

The sculptures and graffiti of the quarry, made using various techniques (gravure, pencil drawn, soot of candle), reflect the cultural diversity of the occupants. The American soldiers, impressed by the magnitude of the galleries, left a major imprint, helping to perpetuate the myth of the "German fortresses" in historiography overseas. Today, the site remains a poignant testimony to the military and artisanal history of the region.

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